Sharpening his attack on the Congress-led UPA for not finding a solution to problems faced by various States, including Tamil Nadu, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, on Wednesday called on voters to give a decisive mandate for a change of rule at the Centre.

The power and water crises that Tamil Nadu faced certainly had a solution. But it required a strong government at the Centre to find one. An alternative force must emerge in Tamil Nadu in the Lok Sabha elections, which would enable a strong government to come to power at the Centre and find solutions to the crises, he said at an election rally here.

Wondering why there should be a power crisis in the State, which had the highest amount of lignite in the country and good solar and wind energy resources, Mr. Modi asked the textile industry in the Coimbatore region whether it wanted to stagnate because of the power situation. “It is time for people to change the fate of Tamil Nadu.”

“Gujarat has surplus power and wants to provide it to Tamil Nadu. But there are no transmission lines for this. The NDA government, headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had announced a project for creating this infrastructure for uninterrupted power supply. But the UPA government halted it,” he alleged.

Likening the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam coming to power alternately to match-fixing, he said this must end with the alternative force coming up in Tamil Nadu.

Starting off with English, Mr. Modi switched to Hindi whenever he had to bring his trademark wordplay into the speech. “When Modi is looking for solutions to the nation’s problems, the Congress is looking only for a solution to their major problem: Narendra Modi,” he said.

Earlier, addressing an election rally in Salem in support of Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam candidates, Mr. Modi said that when the country celebrated its 75th anniversary of Independence in 2022, all people, mostly poor, would have houses, toilet facilities, power and schools in nearby areas.